John Kerry and Madeleine Albright say it's time for the Egyptian president to step down. | AP Photos
Close

Both former diplomats also cautioned that if Mubarak is to step down after more than three decades in power, the transition will have to be slow and steady, rather than happening overnight.

“The demonstrators and the media have been treating this as a sprint rather than a marathon, and I think this is going to take time,” Negroponte said.”I don’t think we can be in too much of a hurry here.”

Text Size

-

+

reset

“We don’t want to see [Mubarak] discredited and all his accomplishments thrown down the drain,” said Walker, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt. “He needs to go out with honor and if we can help him with that, that’s what we should be doing.”

The Obama administration has been criticized at times for its failure to predict that protesters would flood the center of downtown Cairo. Both Walker and Negroponte disagreed with that assessment.

“Politics is inherently an unpredictable thing … but I wouldn’t call this an intelligence failure. [Perhaps] a lack of imagination,” Negroponte said.

Walker concurred, “Maybe we were too mired in the past, but we didn’t have the feeling that any democracy would actually unseat any of these great leaders.”

Also Sunday:

— Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman says the government is mapping out a peaceful transition of power and calls on Egyptians to stop protesting and return to their jobs and everyday life. “We need quiet time to implement” the changes, Suleiman said in a taped interview aired on ABC’s “This Week.”

— Prince Hassan of Jordan said that civil unrest in Egypt will persist, but cautioned that his own country had more of a chance for civility. “This will not go away, no matter what,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “In terms of the immediate future, I just want to say that this region is suffering from two elephants in the room — the price of oil and the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

— Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said that “there has been a huge lack of confidence between the government and the demonstrators.”

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” ElBaradei said the government has to be “very clear that they’re on the side of the people.” He also left the door open for a leadership role in the new government saying, “I want to be an agent for change.”

What was the State Department, WH role in instigating the Egyptian Uprising?

We may never know without Assange and Wikileaks, but lots of people sure seem to be wondering! Wasn't it Madeline Albright who "suddenly" found some Jewish ancestors in her family tree when she worked as SOS under Clinton? Someone should inform her that Mubarik is an ally of Israel! What's going on here? PS: I don't know anyone who cares what Kerry thinks about anything.